Thanks to a steady diet of self-improvement and Twitter, I came up with a little thing.
I’ve always said that if I ever run out of ideas, I’ll know I’m done. Fortunately, I’ve never run out of ideas.
Unfortunately, I have too many ideas.
And while I’m spooling up here, I have a question: does anyone have a recommendation for a good waterproof (but slim) phone case? I ask because I get all my ideas in the shower, and that’s a terrible place for a phone. By the time I towel off and go to write down those ideas, they’ve gone down the drain like the last of my hair.
(Apologies for any visuals here…)
In the last several months I’ve been planning, scheming, and wherever possible, building. I’ve written about it recently. Bottom line: I exhausted myself with trying to fit it all in, and so I went the other direction: I reduced. Hard. I slashed and cut. I slaughtered darlings like a wannabe Jedi Master takes out younglings. I had to admit it, finally, after decades of trying: I can’t do all of it—the side hustles, the frantic scheduling, the daily To Dos hierarchically organized by daily recurring, weekly recurring, “occasional” and short, mid, and long-term goals, all sorted through an intricate task automation system…
I had hit the wall like a crash test dummy.
So, I pivoted. I ejected all the “nice-to-have” stuff and began to focus on the one (maybe two, because I’m a rebellious idiot) things that will move the needle the most. It’s terrifying because when you commit to the One Thing, it changes your life from a multiple choice test to pass/fail.
I knew I needed something like a three word mantra, phrase, motto, something to wrangle my cats back to the barn. Something that would focus, clarify, and remind. This is what I came up with about a month ago:
Courage
Accountability
Mission
This was good. I could drive a stake into the ground and tether my mind to it.
Courage. This is, I’m scared to admit, a big problem for me. Over these last several years I realized that I kept getting stuck not because I didn’t know what to do (as I kept telling myself) but that I knew exactly what I needed to do, and I was terrified of it. A man in that state will do just about anything to avoid the arduous tasks being asked of him. He’ll do something twice as hard, in fact.
Accountability. By it I mean primarily that I need to put 100 percent of the blame for any of my failures right at my feet. I can point to this or that, him or her, etc., but in the end it’s all me. Friends and family will say, “No, it’s not all your fault because of X, Y, and Z,” but in the end, no. It’s on me.
Accountability also means that I need to stop trying to do all of this alone. I need to reach out to the many, many smart folks and experts in my world who can talk me down from some stupid idea, or help put some of the pieces back together when there are explosions.
Mission: This means The One Thing. Courage and accountability are fine and all, but what is it exactly that you need courage for? The mission needs to be well-defined. Crystal clear. Ideally, it should also be good, true and beautiful.
I liked the little acronym it made: CAM. After a little reflection, I thought that Simplicity was important, too. It is vitally important to keep things as simple as possible. So I began my days by saying, “Courage, Accountability, Mission, Simplicity,” and reviewing the tasks for the day in light of this little mantra.
I played with it a bit. Early on, it wasn’t a big deal. It was a waiting-for-the-light-to-turn-green kind of exercise. I didn’t think of it as a unifying life principle or anything.
But still…”CAMS?” What is that? It’s a muscle car thing, right?
So, I mixed it up a bit. Simplicity should be the overall principle, so, how about SCAM?
No. No, no, no, no, nooooo. That will not do.
MACS? Kind of cool, but the acronym didn’t have a sort of transcendent “meta-meaning” in and o itself.
Wait a second, I thought, how about SMAC? Like, “When you need a smack upside the head?”
I liked it. And because I tend to hate “Internet spellings,” I thought it needed a “K” a the end. Should it stand for something, or should it just be a small ‘k?’ Something like SMACk?
What if it stood for Kindness? I mean, I definitely need to work on that. I’m in a Situation because, in part, my words have been less than “life-giving,” we’ll say.
Plus, when one embarks on a big, life-changing goal, one tends to become a little bit elitist, I suppose. Unfortunately, even those closest to you will become foot soldiers in the Army of Resistance. They may not try to tear you down—quite the opposite, actually. They’ll try to talk sense into you. They’ll urge you to be more pragmatic or practical. You, the writer, entrepreneur, concert flautist, whatever, will have to stand your ground and do what you believe yo have to do anyway.
It…does things to you. Inflames pride, for sure. Worse, it makes you “motivational.”
Kindness is critical. Kindness is humility.
So, it became SMACK:
Simplicity - Keep everything to one or two things per day. Three, if you finish one and two.
Mission - Have a worthy goal that serves the big vision.
Accountability - Honor your commitments to yourself. Take wisdom and correction from people who have your back.
Courage - Do the hard thing if it’s the right thing, no matter what.
Kindness - Love and serve everyone even if, or especially if, they don’t see eye-to-eye with you.
Smack yourself upside the head with these principles daily.
I envy people who don’t need some kind of shamanic acronym in order to succeed in the world. Maybe it’s just necessary for us “idea guys” with their heads stuck in the clouds. I’ll say this, though: everybody needs to wrangle their cats. It’s great to have ideas, but without consistent, disciplined action—a big visions and consistent steps to bring them into reality—you need to build on a solid foundation. S.M.A.C.K. is mine.
Thanks for reading!
One word = five? If I could vote (unKindly of course) I vote for courage- do whatcha gotta do. Reminds me of “Eat That Frog” (definitely recommend).
Courage. Boy do I need it! I’m starting to see how much fear is in my life and, though the fear is real as in I actually experience it, it’s also total toro poopoo. But once I’ve stepped in it I can’t get it off my shoe. It sticks with me. I need Love, the Love that casts out all fear, the Holy Ghost.